Free Crimson Dahlia by Abigail Owen Page A

her side. He snapped Lila’s
restraints with a flick of his fingers.
    Charlotte
popped her head in. “I’m going to go help the others. Call Ellie if you need
me.”
    “Nate,
go with Charlotte. Ellie says they need you down there to break some chains,”
Selene said.
    “Got
it, boss.” And the two disappeared.
    Ramsey
looked at Selene. “No alarms raised yet. It’ll be easier to get her out of here
if she’s not dead weight.  Can you wake her up?”
    Selene
gave him a worried look. “I can try. But if it doesn’t happen in a few minutes,
we get her out of here and try to wake her later. Okay?”
    Ramsey
nodded. “I know you can do this.”
     
    *****
     
    “Lila,
can you let me in?” Selene’s voice echoed through the trees.
    Lila
glanced at Griffin, who was sitting close by. She closed her eyes and relaxed as
she had the first time.
    “Good
girl,” Selene’s voice sounded from right beside her.
    “Griffin’s
been keeping me informed,” Lila said. “You’re going to try to wake me up now?”
    Selene
nodded.
    “Okay.”
Lila looked slightly skeptical. “How does this work, exactly?”
    Selene
grimaced. “I’m not entirely sure. I wasn’t able to do anything with Talia. But
I wasn’t able to get into her head like this either.”
    “Maybe
we need Ellie,” Griffin said.
    Selene
shook her head. “She and Charlotte are busy getting everyone out. We’re on our
own for now.”
    She
closed her eyes to concentrate. Using her power to access dreams, Selene
explored the boundaries of the space that Lila seemed to be trapped in. The grey
fog that she’d been surrounded by earlier was pushing in on her, trying to take
her back under. Selene took it as a good sign that they’d been able to pull
Lila out of that at all.
    She
pushed against the fog hovering at the edges, but with no effect. She opened
her eyes. “The mist is the key. I think. You know how it feels when you wake up
from a dream? It feels like your brain is clearing fog out?”
    “Yeah.
I hate that feeling,” Lila grumbled.
    “Well,
we either need to make it go away or pull you through it to wake up. But if you
get stuck in it again, then I’m guessing we’ll have to wait for you to wake up
on your own like Talia did.”
    Lila
gulped. She didn’t want to lose a whole year or longer of her life.
    “It’s
up to you,” Selene said. “We try now and risk it, or we wait for
reinforcements. But even then, I can’t guarantee anything. And we’re running
out of time.”
    Lila
took a deep breath. “Let’s risk it.”
    “Okay.”
Selene glanced at Griffin. “It would probably be better if you left now. I
wouldn’t want you to get trapped in here when I pull Lila out.”
    Griffin
walked over and gave Selene a quick, hard kiss. He glanced at Lila. “See you in
a bit.”
    “I
hope so.”
    With
that Griffin pulled himself from the dream.
    Selene
took Lila by the hand. “Let’s go. And whatever you do, don’t let go of me.”
    Together
they entered the fog at the edges of the dream. They started pushing their way
through the grey mist. Lila could feel Selene holding it back by sheer force of
will.
    “It
seems endless,” Lila said. The mist started closing in on them. “Selene?” She
felt her friend’s hand tremble. “Selene? What’s happening?”
    “I
can’t hold it back,” Selene gritted through her teeth. “Move faster.”
    The
two girls started running. As the fog got nearer, Lila and Selene ran together
as closely as they could without tripping over each other.
    “We’re
not going to make it!” Selene yelled.
    Lila
thought about how close they were, about her family, about lying in a coma for
a year of her life, about a pair of serious green eyes.
    Oh,
hell no …
    She
felt a power gathering inside her. She took every ounce of the iron will that
she possessed and pushed with all her might against the approaching tendrils of
grey curling around their bodies.
     “The
mist seems to be thinning,” Selene